Thanks to the global trend of high-resolution pictures, everyone harmed with a smart device is becoming a prolific photographer. As a community, we now produce more photographs than ever before, and the total number is becoming difficult to fathom. In 2017, over 1.2 trillion pictures were taken and as the year goes by this number increases. Most of these pictures are shared on social media and many will be forgotten because these images hardly transit into becoming blots of ink that coalesce into an image on a piece of paper, canvas, wood, or metal — a print, they are only as good as a swipe on the phone.
Change is inevitable, therefore, the growing use of smart devices with high resolution cameras is a good reason not to ignore value of digital images and we may no longer print every photo default but it will fair to print the best, as any image chosen to be printed deserves the best printing treatment. This increase in digital images does not diminish the quality of print images, it has brought technological advancement in both inkjet printers and digital cameras.
PRINT EVOLVEMENT – An Era of Quality
Prints used to be the only way we had to view our photos (short of shooting slide film and using a projector). We will take our photos, then also take an appointment of when it will be ready for our view not because it was better, but because it was all we had.
We tend to over rate print, but when printing was the norm, many photos were still lost and forgotten and some were found again. Most were destined for photo albums or boxes that would sit around and collect dust until moving day. What’s more, the point of printing when memories can be shared instantly especially when electronically shared images are more convenient and free.
Right now, there is huge resurgence for photo on canvas, wallpapers and so many prints which can be attributed to the same surge of digital images. People never hated print, they hated the waiting process of retrieving an instant memory, they don’t want to ruin the memory with an imagination of how it should be. People have realized that the better feeling of good memories is in the medium used.
DIGITAL INVOLVEMENT; Final judgement on mediocrity
It’s time the world view is focused on the quality of photos printed rather than decline in quantity of photos printed, let’s celebrate the fact that digital has given us new technology and new avenues for producing high quality prints. We have the tools today to make better prints than ever before. With an inkjet photo printer on your desk, you can produce a museum-quality print in your home, directly from your mobile device that rivals what a professional lab can do. This printing process does not require you to convert part of your house into a darkroom in order to do this. No one can deny that digital has not made professional printing more approachable (not to mention, reduced the amount of water and hazardous chemicals needed).
For a case study, let’s take independent publishing, which has increased in recent years largely because of digital tech and the internet, ironically. Despite what people perceive as a decline in print media, the number of magazines produced has stayed constant since 2008, according to Circulation of any given publication may be smaller, but each is higher quality and more targeted. From design to photography to paper selection, everything has improved.
DIGITAL VS PRINT; The Storage argument
The physics of light reflection (how light bounces off a piece of paper and into your eyes) is not going to change, but the way a computer reads an image file is bound to change. JPEG, long the standard of compressed images, is beginning to give way to the new HEIF format. Optical disks like DVDs used to be the gold standard of photo backup, but now they’ve all but vanished. External hard drives have gone through several types of physical connection, from USB to FireWire to Thunderbolt — and several generations of each with more to come.
Technically, there is no guarantee that the computer of tomorrow will be able to read the photos you take today, unless there is a constant upgrade of digital photo archives, which will require a lot of data in a case of thousands of photos saved over the years.
IN CONCLUSION; The Synergy
Now, it makes more sense to invest in a photo printer, as the new era of young photographers are more inclined to not just creating memories but also producing quality photo-print. The digital era brought in convenience and also competition, which makes photographers put more effort into selecting a photo and preparing it for print. As a professional photographer, there is only a tiny difference between you and a hobbyist in this era, which is in print quality and photo presentation.
There is a deep feeling about holding a finished print in your hands that is infinitely more satisfying than seeing your photo on a screen — especially a pocket-sized one of a loved one, either dead or alive. Sometimes, it also serves as a tangible, permanent product of your work, which comes handy when requested by a potential customer, showing a monument to the time and effort you put into your art.
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